


Burning Up

by Thorki_ed



Series: Tumblr Requests/Norsekink Prompts [9]
Category: The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Crack, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-28
Updated: 2012-06-28
Packaged: 2017-11-08 19:16:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/446566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thorki_ed/pseuds/Thorki_ed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So they finally catch the super villain and he's got the sniffles. Huh. Who woulda thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burning Up

**Author's Note:**

> I received a prompt for Loki catching a Midguardian illness.
> 
> For you, thor-odinswag!
> 
> Where Clint isn't under Loki's control right now, and Natasha's interrogation doesn't turn out the way it does in the movie, and things tumble from there.  
> bonus point if you caught the Game of Thrones reference.
> 
> totally unbeta'd as usual

11:42pm

"Natasha," Nick Fury gave her a curt nod as she exited the chamber of the helicarrier that Loki was confined in. "Anything useful?"

"He called me a mewling quim," she huffed.

"Sounds offensive," Tony offered (un)helpfully.

"He's tough. I don't think I'll get anything out of him," Natasha reluctantly admitted. Queen of interrogations, finally defeated. "But, there's something... off. He's got a weird look in his eyes, and I hate to admit it, but it was the same look on Clint's before I knocked him out."

Clint squirmed in his seat a little before looking away from Fury.

"You think he's under the same control as Barton was?" Fury asked incredulously.

"Excuse me, but I was under _his_ control, remember?"

"I think you were under his control under someone else's control."

Steve piped in, "If Loki's not the one in control here... Then we're after something a lot... bigger."

"I don't think I can _handle_ bigger right now!" Fury shouted, obviously stressed.

"Could it be those things from the big hole in the sky?" Tony asked rather unintelligently.

Bruce sided with Tony, "The Chitauri, that's what Thor had said they were called, seem to have small magic abilities. Apparently some guy named Thanos has links to magic like Loki does, though not as strong. It's possible that he's somehow duplicated the energy readings of the Tesseract and manipulated them into a smaller craft, and connected the two so that whoever wields the Tesseract has control over the smaller fraction, which in this case, would be Loki's sceptre." 

"English, please?" Clint asked to break the silence that followed.

Tony was practically bouncing, "Yes! Yes! That's gotta be it. I KNEW those energy readings were similar, but he's tried to cover his tracks, some of those energy emissions are a little off from the Tesseract, but not enough to make it a new energy source."

So, while Tony and Bruce were talking ecstatically about this scientific mumbo jumbo, Nick made a decision.

"Tomorrow," he said solemnly, "We'll have to bring out the big guns."

Tony and Bruce stopped their chatting just briefly as they, Steve, Natasha, and Clint all looked at each other rather uncomfortably. They had a good reason for keeping Thor away from Loki ever since they captured him - an unpredictable Thor was dangerous. An unpredictable Thor plus an unpredictable Loki-under-someone-else's-control and you were just _asking_ for trouble. 

 

~

1:02am

Tony was never one for sleep anyway, which is probably why everything at Stark Industries was always advancing at such an alarming pace, leaving its competition in the dust. 

Today had exhausted him, capturing Loki took a lot more effort and energy than he'd like to admit, but that's what fascinated him so much. This guy was literally the epitome of power, and if somebody else was controlling all that power, they were in some deep trouble. He should probably be resting, but as he studied Bruce's proposition, he couldn't tear away from his research. He knew that if Thor was going to talk to Loki tomorrow, he had to be ready. He had to have a plan. He had to have Tony's solution. He worked away, tapping at his screens and mumbling JARVIS careful instructions.

 

~

3:03am

**"All units report to SEC-17. All units report to SEC-17."**

The sirens were blaring, agents were scrambling and director Nick Fury was unamused. Up until then, he was confident that Loki was under control, even if they had no information from him, he was harmless in that little cage. The little cage that was suddenly orange, and decorated with flowers.

"Mind telling me what the hell is going on here?" he asked a nearby SHIELD agent.

"Um... Well, we're working on it, sir."

"Well, work faster!" he snapped.

Loki was still inside the cage, though looking a little paler than normal with sunken eyes and a red nose.

Natasha was already up against the glass, banging against it trying to talk to him. He swayed dangerously before falling to his knees and landing on his side, nose twitching. Then, his whole body shook and folded in on itself as he sneezed.

"What the fuck?" came Clint's voice, slightly amused at the sight of a sneezing god.

"WHERE AM I? Achoo!" One of Fury's agents was flung against a wall.

"Brother?" Thor said as he walked into the cage.

"THOR? Achoo! What are YOU doing here? Where are we?" A disco ball appeared, flashing brilliant lights around them. Tony and Clint seemed to take glee in this.

Thor knelt down beside Loki, and peered curiously at him. "Are you unwell?"

"What do you think, you blundering fool! TELL ME WHERE WE ARE!" he sniffled. "Achoo!" A flamingo appeared off to Fury's left. 

Fury raised arched eyebrow from where he was standing, "Seriously?"

Natasha walked briskly toward him, and pulled him aside. "Sir, that look is gone."

"Excuse me?"

"They've let him go, sir. He's... back."

"Well fuck it all," Fury said, walking back to the holding cell, Natasha and Clint at his heels, seeing Bruce, Tony and Steve already behind Thor, who cradled his little brother like an infant. At least he was calm, and that was something Fury was grateful for.

"... And it was as if the universe, all the realms, disappeared. There was nothing, nothing but emptiness."

Tony shuddered. He remembered what it was like, the _cold_ and the darkness of that... place.

"And the Chitauri?" Bruce asked.

"They took me. They just simply grabbed me out of the darkness when I was drifting, and when I awoke they were already experimenting with me. Achoo!" Bruce's glasses turned an alarming shade of pink.

Steve handed him a box of tissues, cautiously as if Loki were a zoo animal. "What do you mean... experiment?" His voice was drawn out and slow, afraid of the answer.

Loki nodded his thanks before blowing his nose slightly. Tony thought it sounded like a cute little trumpet, and bit his lip down really, really hard so as not to laugh in the sick god's face.

Without warning, he almost stripped his leather armour and tunic underneath, pulling it up to his chin to show a deep gash in his pectoral, right above his heart. "They tried to extract my magic from me. Fools, they were, thinking my heart was the source of my magic."

Thor held onto Loki even tighter, a worried look across his face before his fingertips traced the scar. 

"And what is the source of your magic?" Bruce wondered.

"That I cannot tell you. Achoo!" Thor's hair turned blue. The rest of the team couldn't help but laugh. Thor seemed not to care. He must've been used to it. 

"Brother, let us help you."

Bruce tried a different tactic, "Your magic seems to get a little out of control with the cold you've got. Maybe if you could explain the source of your magic, we could help keep that.. at bay."

"Achoo!" Steve's shield turned into a kitten.

"Wh-WOAH!" he said, startling the kitten, who hissed in return for being dropped so gracelessly.

They all looked at Loki now, hoping for an explanation.

"My nose hurts." was all he said before shifting into Thor and promptly falling asleep, mouth slightly open to accommodate his breathing since his nose was stuffy.

Thor's smile could've powered all of New York through a blackout. "He has fallen asleep!"

The team grumbled at Thor's pointing out the obvious, as usual. 

"So, what do we do?" Tony asked.

"I think that's pretty obvious," Fury stated. They looked at him expectedly. "You can all go to hell if you think I'm gonna allow him to keep sneezing considering what he's already pulled!"

"So... you want us... to take care of him?" Steve offered.

"Hell yeah," Fury snapped before turning around and walking out, leaving the Avengers a bit baffled.

"And take care of those goddamn animals! See if the zoo needs another damned flamingo!" he threw over his shoulder.

"Can I keep the kitten?" Tony asked.

He was ignored.

 

~

 

8:16am

When Loki arose the next morning in Thor's arms, he was happy not to move. He was content, and he felt safe for the first time in what seemed like centuries. 

"Achoo!" he let out without warning, startling Thor, who groaned sleepily and held Loki closer until he was suffocated against Thor's chest.

"Can't - brrref" Loki managed. 

"How are you fairing, brother?"

"Head hurts, can't breathe, irritating noises coming from my mouth paired with explosions behind my eyes. How do you think?"

"Ah yes, the team gets them fairly regularly! They say it is a flu."

"How embarrassing, fallen by a common Midguardian illness, " Loki sniffed. He reached for another tissue.

"Do not worry, brother! I will ask them of remedies!"

 

~

9:02am

"Hello?" Bruce called, poking his head into the holding-cell-turned-guest-room. Loki had been considered a non-threat for now, chains removed and freedom given to use the facilities available. He even returned Steve's shield.

"Hello." Loki said in return simply.

"I guess Thor's explained what you have, and I'm the closest thing to a doctor... Do you mind if I have a look at you?"

"No."

Short answers. Alright.

He checked Loki's tonsils, which seemed to be okay, and listened to Loki's breathing through a stethoscope only to reveal that there were probably rivers of mucus swimming around.

"Seems to be hitting you hard, probably because you don't have any immunity to it."

Loki coughed, thumping his chest as he did so before his fact contorted with disgust. Bruce knew that feeling. He handed Loki a garbage bin, who took it, turned his back to Bruce, and spat.

"How horrid."

"Yeah, that's phlegm for ya. I'll send some medicine in." 

~

10:14am

"Hey sunshine!" came Tony's too-cheery voice.

"Yes, Stark?"

"Bruce said you might want some medicine, but I couldn't decide which flavour to get you," as he sat in the chair beside Loki's bed. "So I got you all of them!" True to his word, a dozen strange bottles fell out of the paper bag, which Loki peered at curiously. 

He unscrewed the lid of a grape one, took a sniff and scrunched his nose. It was adorable, really. Then, he chugged the whole thing before Tony could protest.

"Uh..."

"Is there a problem, Stark?"

"Well you only had to take a little bit... but.. um, that's cool too."

"Achoo!" 

Tony Stark was not fond of his newly shaved head, and Clint was not helping with the new nickname "Eggward Stark"

~

11:01am

"Hey Loki," Steve said as he walked across the floor very carefully, steaming bowl in hand.

"Steve Rogers," Loki greeted.

"I thought you could use some homemade chicken soup. It usually helped with my colds when I got sick."

Loki sniffed at the bowl but couldn't smell anything with his nose. He brought the spoon of steamy liquid to his mouth and sipped carefully. It was delightful, and Loki smiled gratefully at Steve.

"Thank you, this is quite enjoyable."

Steve blushed at the compliment. "It was my grandmother's secret recipe. Sometimes I pretended to be sick so she'd make it."

They both laughed easily at this. Soon, Loki was down to his last spoonful before he sneezed again, spraying the liquid all over Steve's face. Steve blinked once as a noodle peeled itself off and fell from his forehead.

"Oh. I'm terribly sorry."

"It's alright! At least nothing went crazy, right?"

They dismissed the situation as Loki cleaned him off before falling asleep again.

Nobody told Steve about the "LOLJK, I'M CANADIAN" sign that was taped to his back for a long time.

~

12:56pm

**"All units report to SEC-17. All units report to SEC-17."**

_Not again_ , was the only thought on Fury's mind. 

Last to arrive, he pushed the Avengers out of the way to see Loki trashing about in his sheets, stringing together words of a foreign tongue and sneezing his goddamn crazy head off. As he did so, the lights flickered, animals appeared and reappeared and at the end of it all they were stuck with three chimpanzees, half a dozen smashed lightbulbs, a new plasma TV and Fury standing with a yellow eyepatch.

"Someone give that kid a flu shot!" he ordered before stomping away angrily.

"Do we have to? The TV was a nice gift, maybe he'll sneeze us up an XBOX next."

"Clint, I will throw you off this helicarrier myself if I have to."

~

1:13pm

"Tash, are you sure you're holding him still enough?"

"I'll throw you off this helicarrier before Fury can even get to you," she said menacingly, her hands wrapped around Loki's arm. She was thankful for her gloves, feeling the burning sensation beneath her palms. Loki could quite literally be on fire soon with his fever.

"Alright Loki, I don't know if this is gonna hurt you but please just stay still, okay?"

Loki nodded, but his eyes followed the needle carefully.

As Clint brought the needle to his arm and pushed, nothing happened. Frowning, Clint pushed slightly harder, and when it finally seemed to sink into Loki's flesh, Clint gave a whoop of victory, and Loki hadn't even flinched.

When he withdrew the needle, he saw that the tip had completely crunched up on itself, leaving a thin W zigzag.

With a sigh, the three looked at each other with lost looks. 

~

3:45pm

When they all reported to director Fury about none of their treatments working, showing him the needle as evidence, he sighed deeply.

"If I may," Thor said. "As children, my mother would sign to us if we were unwell."

They all looked at him if he had grown fifteen heads.

"Try _everything_ ," Fury commanded. 

Sick Loki was more exhausting than Leading-an-army Loki. 

~

7:08pm

Everything. They had tried it. Seriously. Tony played rock, Bruce sang children's lullabies and Natasha even sang foreign ones. Clint played the piano, Steve introduced jazz and swing, yet nothing was helping. Hours later, they were exhausted, and at a loss. Each sneeze terrorized a new part of the helicarrier, and Fury was at his wits end.

"Brother!" Thor greeted the very still Loki, who was curled in his blankets like a burrito. 

"Mrrrf" he responded, muffled by the blanket that came up to his nose.

"Come, brother."

He wrapped his arms around his little burrito brother and held him closely. As he stroked through Loki's silky softness of black hair he murmured a few lines from an ancient Asgardian lullaby that Frigga had sung for them. Granted, his voice wasn't as smooth and his tone could use some work, but Loki hummed contently into his brother's side, allowing Thor to fiddle with the stray locks that fell to his shoulder blades.

The Avengers watched as the scene unfolded before them. They watched as Thor rubbed his brother's back as the foreign words slipped off his tongue while playing with his hair. They watched as Loki's eyelids eventually fell and his breathing evened into a slow pace. They watched as Loki eventually turned the corner of his lip into a smile as he wormed around in the blankets to snuggle closer to Thor. They watched as Thor planted a gentle kiss upon Loki's brow. They watched as Thor started to fumble over his words before succumbing to sleep himself. They stayed for more than a few minutes, drinking in the sweet sight before them.

"Meow," said the kitten perched on Tony's shoulder.

"I know, Loki. They're pretty cute."

The team looked at Tony in shock.

"You named the cat... Loki?" Steve asked.

"Meow," the kitten answered for him.

"ACHOO!" came Loki's sneeze, as thunderous as before.

The kitten transformed into an otter, causing Tony to crash to the ground.

"Couldn't have waited until _after_ I got it off my shoulder?" he muttered.

"ACHOO!"

Everyone ran for cover.


End file.
